Murray State University Athletics
'Breds Lend Helping Hand To EIU Softball
3/26/2007 5:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Ohio Valley Conference is one of the tightest geographic leagues in NCAA Division I, and while that closeness provides good rivalries, it also makes good neighbors.
The Murray State Thoroughbreds were returning home on Sunday after winning its baseball series at pre-season favorite Samford when junior outfielder Matt Scheer received a call on his cell phone from his girlfriend, Alysson Nolte, a junior catcher on the Eastern Illinois softball team.
"Actually, I got a text message from her," Scheer said. "She sent me a picture message saying her bus was on fire. So, I decided to tell Jon (DeMarie), our athletic trainer, because he knew some of the players on Eastern's team. I guess he ended up telling Coach (Rob McDonald) about it. Coach called me up to the front of the bus and asked me what was going on. I told him what was going on, and he wanted me to call them back and find out if they had another bus coming and if we could help.
"I called them back, and their coach talked to our coach, and he found out what was going on. Coach decided that we'd give them a ride, and found out where they were."
Where they were was close to Mile Marker 291, just 36 miles north of Samford University, where the EIU softball team and MSU baseball team had just competed over the weekend in their respective sports.
"We were about 20 miles outside of Birmingham when we started to smell smoke," said EIU head coach Kim Schuette. "The smell kept following us. When it started, I was on the phone with our sports information contact, and when I got off the phone, I asked our bus driver about it. She checked her rear-view mirror and saw the smoke coming from her rear tire, and wanted to see if she could make it to the next exit, but we decided to pull over.
"When we got out, we saw the driver's-side rear tires smoking, but when we looked on the other side, we saw flames. We got everyone off the bus. It was a small fire, but it was still scary.
"We stood there waiting, and we called 911, and (assistant coach) Jason (Dorey) and the bus driver got the fire extinguishers out. The fire rescue people arrived, and that's when the other tire blew out. It was really loud!"
"Apparently, the air in one of the other tires got really hot, and the air started to expand," said Dorey. "Finally, it just blew out. One of the last players to get her stuff off of the bus was onboard when it happened, and she dove off of the bus and hit the ground. It wasn't funny then, but it's kind of funny now."
The Arkadelphia (Ala.) Fire Department and Cullman County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Eddie responded, aiding with the safety of the team and maintaining control of the northbound traffic. Traffic was routed into the leftmost lane, causing a backup of 1.5 to 2 miles.
The Murray State baseball team was less than 10 miles behind the EIU softball team's bus, making the decision to act that much easier.
"(The softball team) was kind of stranded," said MSU head coach Rob McDonald, "and it seemed obvious that there was some way that we could help out by transporting them somewhat further north. It just seemed like the obvious thing to do. They are a team in our conference. It wasn't even out of the way for us, so we just talked and got it arranged as to where they were. That was pretty obvious, because traffic was backed up so much, because they had a significant fire at some point."
Murray State's bus received permission from the authorities at the site to use the shoulder to get to the other bus, and drove about 1.5 miles down the shoulder around the stalled traffic, enjoying the incredulous looks given by the drivers on the interstate.
After the 'Breds' bus arrived at Eastern Illinois's bus, the softball team got onto MSU's bus -- many of them carrying pillows, music and books -- and took up open seats usually reserved for the baseball players' CD players, books and other travel items.
The Panthers were transported 13 miles up the road, getting out at a truck stop at Exit 304 and waiting for a replacement bus to pick them up and take them back to Charleston, Ill.
"We drove them up the interstate and let them off at a truck stop, which is what they wanted to do -- we would have taken them farther if they wanted to. It was just a kind of an unusual thing. I'm glad we could help them out some. Hopefully, everything worked out OK for them."
"We got back at 5:00 in the morning," Dorey said, "but everyone was OK -- just a little tired. The replacement bus got us around 9:30 and drove us up into Kentucky, then we got on another bus, and that one drove us the rest of the way. We spent the time at the truck stop hanging out at a convenience store and ate some food at the restaurant there."
"Coach McDonald kept offering to take us as far as we needed to go," Schuette said, "and when we got off at the truck stop, he offered to wait with us, but we told him to go on home. There was no sense in both teams having to wait a long time to get home.
"We really appreciate them taking the time to help us out. Not everyone would have done that, and it feels great when teams can come together like that."
To some, it might appear that the Thoroughbreds, which won the 2006 OVC Baseball Sportsmanship Award, were working towards winning this year's award, but in reality, the motivation to help the Panthers softball team came from wanting to help others in need. It's just what neighbors do.
